Sunland Baobab - Bar & Wine Cellar in one of the Oldest Trees in the World

Sunland Baobab - A Bar and Wine Cellar in the Oldest Tree in the World.

Sunland Baobab also know as the Tree Bar, Big Baobab and Pub Tree is a
well-known enormous baobab in South Africa. The tree is located on Sunland
Farm, near Modjadjiskloof, Limpopo Province. The Sunland Big Baobab is
renowned because in its hollowed trunk there is established a bar and a wine
cellar. The tree has been carbon dated and is estimated to be around 6000
years old which would make it one of the oldest trees in the world.

The trunk of the tree consists of two connected parts. Each
of these parts has its own enormous hollow connected with a
narrow passage. Diameter of the tree - 35 feet, height 62
feet and the circumference of the trunk is almost 110 feet.

Carbon investigations inside the hollows of the tree testify
that there have been fires in the hollow in 1650 AD,
1750–1780, 1900, 1955 and 1990. Hollows have been turned
into pub and wine cellar in 1993 by the owners of Sunland
farm and this unusual landmark since then has turned into
popular tourist destination.

Sunland Farm:
Doug and Heather van Heerden bought Sunland in 1989. The entire farm was under
sisal, there was no electricity, a ramshackle homestead and a
brackish 200 gallon borehole.

The farm is situated in the foothills of the legendary Modjadji
Cycad Reserve, home to the Rain Queens. The Modjadji cycad, which
grows up to 13m, has been protected by several generations of Rain
Queen.

The farm was totally underdeveloped and its history was buried with
previous generations, some of them in a graveyard 50 meters from the
tree.

Not scared of hard work, Doug set to work, clearing the land and
setting up the nursery. On the cleared land he planted mango trees,
with palm trees in between, to best utilise the meagre water
resources. Each time there was enough money, it was used to drill
new boreholes in the search for water.

Doug reasoned that if an enormous Baobab could survive for
millennia, whilst further north trees had perished in the drought,
there must be water somewhere. And that belief was vindicated when
they struck a source with the second strongest yield in Mooketsi,
the immediate area.

The van Heerdens have cleared almost 200 acres of the 270 acre farm
and planted 10,000 Mango and Avocado trees and thousands of Palms.